Question for Computer geeks.

[rknight111]

This is about SQL and Vbulletin. Vbulletin uses mySQL for all of its data base. When you have a large forum with alot of members looking at data and making new data all at the same time the server load will go up. SATA drives can only read and write so fast, I don't believe they can do both at the same time and therefore you have a bottleneck. This bottleneck then jambs up the memory and processors with information waiting to be written or read. So with this new server I went with 4 - SAS Drives (15000 RPM) on Raid10. Once in a while we hit that bottleneck as the drives can only read and write so fast. This is much faster than the typical SATA. I was going to add 4G more ram to the server to bring it to 16Gig DDR3 SD Ram and was offered a new solution. A OCZ Z-Drive Solid State drive, 256GB, this would be for the SQL data base and attachments only. The remaining site would run on two SAS Drives (Raid 1). This solid state drive is the future, no moving parts, lightning fast Some info here,

Z-Drive eliminates the I/O bottlenecks attributable to inferior interface and storage technology and creates new possibilities in enterprise data management.

The Z-Drive is capable of delivering a full gigabyte of data per second and up to 135,000 random write IOPS all with an elegant and small form factor that makes for an easy upgrade for virtually any workstation or server farm that’s falling behind with SATA or SAS hard drives. Unlike HDD arrays, a single Z-Drive can tackle and thrive in intensive workload environments while diminishing potential failure points along the way.

Now, is this worth trying out, are they proven. I dont want to come on and find its down.

Your thoughts? This is directed at computer savy people, not for joking around with please.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

The only thing I would say right now is how full are the drives and is 256gb going to be big enough?

 

[rknight111]

Currently we are:

SQL Database: 2.28 G
Attachment: 4.08 G
Software etc: 370 MB

At 256 G that will last a while.

We are running on a:
Dual Xeon X5650 HEXA CORE (Westmere) 16 Cores, 2.66GHZ per core!
16 G DDR3 SDRam
4 - 147GB SAS Raid 10 (15,000 RPM) Drives
500 G SATA Backup drive

 

[TABSTER]

Drink cans and you won't have bottlenecks.....

 

[ferniesnow]

This is directed at computer savy people, not for joking around with please.

Are you serious? Not with these clowns and the millionth post coming up with all the S&M swag to be won.....just saying

 

[szprod]

Solid state disks will definitely be faster because there is no disk platter to seek so seek times are 0. Also more reliable with no moving parts. We just sold one of our clients a Dell R710 server with 64gig DDR3 RAM and SD disks for their SQL DB's and when users read/write or perform select statements on the DB it is way faster. Only reason we don't sell more servers with SD disks is they are a lot of $$$. Just remember do not run a defrag on SD disks

 

[szprod]

I should also say that the users may not notice much of a difference though. Our client noticed a difference because all transactions to and from the SQL server are on the LAN. With everyone here say uploading a picture or browsing the site over the WAN there are many factors that will effect speed like there internet connection and even if they have a fast connection how many hops between nodes to get to the S&M server and how much latency is there. Also speed of the user's computer etc. If you are wanting to upgrade to increase server performance and not to the end users experience because you ran a HD speed test tool and found the I/O slow and its effecting the server performance then I would say it is worth it.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

I also thought that seek times depended on the driver and the chipset running them,.. some are good and some are bad.

 

[Longhorn]

Ron,

This will seem a bit off topic, but I will get there...You have asked if solid state drives are proven. At the last company I was at we had almost 40 supervisors in the field running laptops in their trucks. We are a pipeline company so you can only imagine how rough the roads and ROW's are...The core components of the laptop would stand up but the hard drives would go out continuously, and some being connected to the motherboard required total replacement of the laptop. We started with the Dell 7" and 9" Netbooks almost 3 years ago, the first laptops with solid state drives. We were told by Dell that if they didnt survive a year in ANY vehicle, they would replace them at their cost. We tried them and I still havent killed the first one. It is now running a GPS mapping program in the Snowcat on the military base. I am also running 2 HP 10" Netbooks with 250GB solid state hard drives and they are flawless and super fast. The solid state drive is essentially a big flash drive. No moving parts means no issues...

I cant speak fluently on the mySQL issues but I give a big 'thumbs-up' to the solid state drives. 3 years, no issues, very happy...

 

[rknight111]

Thanks for the serious reply's. Liquidweb offered a regular SSD when I first moved there last month but did not recommend that for mysql on a VB forum. They will fail after constant hi usage read and writes. That was a Intel SSD Drive X-25e. Now just the other day they came to me with a new drive they been testing the OCZ Z-Drive Solid State Drive.This is much more reliable and proven. This has the capability of: Read - 700MB/s Writes - 500MB/s. Im not sure what the SSD has, it is better than the SATA though. I am currently looking very seriously at this for the sites data base (MySQL) server. This would increase speeds alot as the only bottleneck we can see is the IO with the drives. Liquidweb has a full time monitoring system on the server that monitors everything. They may be 15 - 20% higher than the other hosts Ive seen but I see why already.

 

[Longhorn]

My opinion, if your bottleneck with the SATA drives is in the IO then the solid state should be an easy decision...For me who isnt paying for it that is...

 

[Longhorn]

When do you need to decide by? If you are interested, I can send your question to my super geek buddy who runs our diesel sites. He does all the hosting himself and has built all his own servers...he actually understands this stuff and can explain it very well...

 

[rknight111]

I cant speak fluently on the mySQL issues but I give a big 'thumbs-up' to the solid state drives. 3 years, no issues, very happy...

Thanks, for the advise as well. The technology on the large server PCI solid state drives is a fairly new frontier, it has been proven with laptops and home computers, but not for high usage in servers. As they indicated to me that with the usage that the site would put on the regular SSD I would wear it out too fast and they wouldn't even install it. Now this new Z drive PCI Express has been tested and released it will put up with the constant reads and writes that the site will demand.

Other stats:
We are currently at an average rate of 2800 Kb/s bandwidth which they consider higher usage. Our server load hovers around 1.41 with 1200 people on line.

 

[rknight111]

When do you need to decide by? If you are interested, I can send your question to my super geek buddy who runs our diesel sites. He does all the hosting himself and has built all his own servers...he actually understands this stuff and can explain it very well...

What diesel sites does he run? I own the dieselsite.ca and dieseltruck.ca but snowandmud got so busy I have not done anything with them yet. YET!!:d

With the heavy bandwidth its easier to have a host. I feel better now that the host has there own servers, back up power, controlled enviroments. Here it is

 

[Longhorn]

What diesel sites does he run? I own the dieselsite.ca and dieseltruck.ca but snowandmud got so busy I have not done anything with them yet. YET!!:d

With the heavy bandwidth its easier to have a host. I feel better now that the host has there own servers, back up power, controlled enviroments. Here it is

dieselbombers.com...just sold it...we as a group also own dieslebookmarks.com and a couple others. I personally own cumminsforum.ca, .net, .org. and a few others over a late night fight LOL...

 

[rknight111]

My opinion, if your bottleneck with the SATA drives is in the IO then the solid state should be an easy decision...For me who isnt paying for it that is...

Im not using SATA drives I started with SAS (15,000 Rpm) SAS are more than SATA.

 

[win]

dieselbombers.com...just sold it...we as a group also own dieslebookmarks.com and a couple others. I personally own cumminsforum.ca, .net, .org. and a few others over a late night fight LOL...

Longhorn, im a member on cumminsform.ca, very good info on that site.

Sorry for high jacking, <as you were>

 

[rknight111]

dieselbombers.com...just sold it...we as a group also own dieslebookmarks.com and a couple others. I personally own cumminsforum.ca, .net, .org. and a few others over a late night fight LOL...

You dont have those set up, just the URL's I see.

I have:

snowandmud.com
snowandmud.ca
snowandmud.net
snowandmud.org
snowandmud.us
snowandmud.info
snowandmud.biz
mudandsnow.ca
mudandsnow.org
mudandsnow.net
atv2buy.ca
quadrally.ca
snowmobilerallies.ca
snowmobilerally.ca
quadrallies.ca
quadrallies.com
atvtrailmaps.ca
quadparts.ca
topsnowmobilesites.ca

 

[Longhorn]

Longhorn, im a member on cumminsform.ca, very good info on that site.

Sorry for high jacking, <as you were>

No you arent LOL. You are a member of cumminsforum.com...the info is so-so at best because all the talent went to dieselbombers.com. Check it out!

 

[rknight111]

Boy there playing a hard bargain on the Z-Drive, They don't deal to well. Its a few hundred dollar a month increase. But well worth it. I'll let you know shortly.